Conservatives push back against liberal attacks

The anti-government language of the YouTube clips that the suspected shooter, Jared Loughner, had uploaded had drawn early connections to the tea party, but no evidence surfaced suggesting that Loughner was a fan or supporter of the tea party, Palin, Beck or any of the other media figures named in some liberal critiques.

The lack of any known connection between Loughner and Palin or the tea party prompted The Washington Examiner’s Byron York to accuse CNN and other media organizations of jumping to conclusions after congressional reporter Jessica Yellin told Wolf Blitzer that “clearly this is a moment to talk about our political rhetoric.”

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Yellin pointed out that Palin had released a statement of condolence for Giffords and the other victims of the shooting and their families, but York objected to the notion that a discussion about political vitriol was fair game at that time, when the mainstream media went to great lengths to avoid jumping to conclusions about the reasons behind the Ft. Hood shooting in November 2009.

“Indeed, there is no ‘overt’ or any other sort of connection between Loughner and Palin,” York wrote. “If such evidence came to light, it would certainly be news. But without that evidence, and after a brief caveat, the CNN group went back to discussing the theory that Loughner acted out of rage inspired by Palin and other Republicans. Conclusions were jumped to all around.”

The National Review’s Jonah Goldberg criticized “those who immediately shoe-horned these awful crimes into their ideological prism,” and added: “There have been some truly disgusting displays of opportunism out there.”

Olbermann, New York Times’ columnist Paul Krugman and Joe Klein all pointed to Glenn Beck as a purveyor of the kind of violent rhetoric and conspiracy theories that might push a disturbed person over the edge. Beck was silent Sunday, but his website, The Blaze, was filled with examples of liberals politicizing the shooting.

The site links to Olbermann’s special comment, in which he said Beck “obsesses, nearly as strangely as this Mr. Loughner did, about gold and debt;” and to Krugman’s blog post in which he cites Beck and says “violent acts are what happen when you create a climate of hate.”

Taken together, these clips form the foundation of what could be a strong counterpunch from Beck on his radio and television shows on Monday.

Beck has been accused before of inciting people to violence, a charge that he has always denied. Last month, to illustrate the absurdity of these claims, he discussed the Florida school board shooting, noting with mock glee that the shooter had links to Media Matters, a frequent Beck critic, on his Facebook page.

“Let me make this very clear,” Beck said. “Media Matters did not try to go in and shoot the school board. It was the crazy nut job that did it. Period. Nobody’s responsible for making anybody go do anything violent except crazy people who decide that violence is the answer.”

Conservative firebrand Andrew Breitbart has already begun to throw the left’s attempts to tie the shooting to the right back at them.

A classmate of the man accused of shooting Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords this morning describes him as "left wing" and a "pot head" in a series of posts on Twitter this afternoon.

Caitie Parker did not immediately respond to our request for an interview, but her "tweets" in the hours after the shooting paint a picture of Jared Loughner as a substance-abusing loner who had met Giffords before the shooting. She says, Loughner described the congresswoman as "stupid and unintelligent."

We've confirmed that Parker and Loughner went to school together at Mountain View High School in Tucson and that both attended Pima Community College, so her claims of knowing Loughner seem to be legit.

Parker "tweets" that she and Loughner were in the band together and were friends until 2007 when he became "reclusive" after getting alcohol poisoning and dropping out of college.

It's interesting that in 24 hours, the narrative from the right wing has become "the shooter was a liberal nut."

The source of that spin seems to be the disturbing memo published by Judson Phillips, founder of the Tea Party Nation.

It was immediately clear that the TP supporters (Like Rush's dittoheads) are simply parroting what they have been told to say and think. In his memo, Phillips urged his Tea Party supporters to blame liberals for the attack.

“The hard left is going to try and silence the Tea Party movement by blaming us for this. Clinton used the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing to “blame conservative talk radio, especially Rush Limbaugh” and “The tactic worked then, backing conservatives off and possibly helping to ensure a second Clinton term. The left is coming and will hit us hard on this. We need to push back harder with the simple truth. The shooter was a liberal lunatic. Emphasis on both words.”

Despite Loughner's radical liberal ideology and his listing of the Communist Manifesto as a favorite book, I will hold off on blaming the inflamed rhetoric of CNN, MSNBC, Daily Kos, Obama and staff, etc., until we receive any real evidence that their continuous stream of hate speech prompted his actions. These people do have to understand that their speech has consequences, however, and might want to apologize and tone down their vitriol.

It isn't "overheated" to respond to lies, theft, and unaccountable government, spending money that no one has, or ever will have, in a very serious way. It is appropriate, even though the charlatans in power would like it to go on forever.

"A substance abusing loner", doesn't that sound like tea party members? The tea party is watching Washington, and this tragedy has nothing to do with the tea party. Sure you hate it, but get used to it, and get over it.

To Republicans, Independents, and Blue Dogs: Compare the CROSSHAIRS the Daily KOS had on Giffords and others to the SURVEYING MAP SYMBOLS Sarah Palin had on her MAP which the lefties and their journolists PURPORT to be crosshairs! You just can't make this stuff up! Facts are facts, you can't change their interpretation because of your politics! Lefties think so short term, amazing they don't realize they're eroding the little credibility they have!

I think that is an excellent point, and it demonstrates that you are very objective, and broad minded. Truly compassionate, in withholding judgement, from the mean-spirited liberal influences, which very well may have pushed this mind of mush, over the edge.

Ah, sweet hypocrisy The people who have politicized everything, who have smeared and lied and "swift-boated," who have spawned birthers and deathers, who have encouraged their followers to appear at rallies with guns...

These same people are now crying foul.

If there is a devil, then he must be having a right good laugh at the moment. Down there. In the sulphur and the flame.

This tragedy has illustrated the Left’s hypocrisy like nothing in a long time. The same people who idolized people like Abbie Hoffman, the Weathermen, Act Up, even Woody Guthrie, now howl because of supposed bad behavior in politics on the Right. Guthrie’s guitar had a motto on it, “This machine kills fascists.” Something tells me he wasn't talking about Benito Mussolini. A post at www.granitesentry.com.

Republicans were "pushing back" before anybody pushed them. It's a standard tactic, usually preceding any actual criticism and borne of horribly guilty consciences: "The left is trying to demonize us for (whatever we did that caused [catastrophe XYZ] to happen) AND WE'RE NOT GOING TO LET THEM GET AWAY WITH IT." The technique goes back decades, such as when Limbaugh wrote a Newsweek column in 1995 about how he wasn't to blame for the Oklahoma City bombing. The media fall for it every time...like, now. And don't forget the false equivalency, which the press buys into without question: "We need to lower the rhetoric on both sides," as though it's happening equally on both sides which of course it is not.

conservatives pushed back – arguing that attempts to politicize the event were unfair, crass and therefore likely to backfire

Attention all Left-Wing tragedy Pimps & Hustlers the people that know this monster best are stepping forth about what he was about...Jared Loughner, Alleged Shooter in Gabrielle Giffords Attack, Described by Classmate as a: "Left-Wing Pothead" http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.c... Now can all you DemLib ***-clowns knock off the politics, and realize that this nut job has slaughtered people of all ages and mindsets...

And to those of you that continue to cling to your political stupidity--Could care less about the human tragedy, your debased minds instead seek to use this event as a prop to slander the Tea Party movement over the actions of this wretched nut, therefore making you traffickers of moralistic pornography. With your cynical political efforts to excite your base; do you idiots even realize you're attempting to incite violence towards people like Sarah Palin that could end in her death?

This monster not only attempted to take the life of a moderate Democrat congresswoman but also took the lives of several others including a 9 year old girl & a 76 year old man. Where were these same hucksters when wackos on the left were taking pot-shots at president Ford or crafting films about assassinating a sitting U.S. president? http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/... --TV network defends its airing of ‘Death of a President’